Monday 17 December 2012


‘The media love publishing stories on different generations of humans. Every time a new set of teenagers comes of age, countless authors expound upon what makes this one different from the last. Gen X, the disenchanted, have been replaced by Gen Y, hard workers who don’t remember a world before the Internet. Yet the baby boomers are always discussed as a thing of the past, not a force that shapes the present, let alone the future. Why should we care about them?’

Youth Culture Vultures >>> Check out this review of my book BOOM! - A Baby Boomer Memoir, 1947-2022 at 

http://popanth.com/review/boom-a-baby-boomer-memoir-1947-2022-by-ted-polhemus/

And for the best Culture Soup and Hot Buttered Humanity bookmark the excellent popanth.com for a truly global view of contemporary lifestyles.

 Popular anthropology for everyone. Exploring the familiar and the strange, demystifying and myth busting human culture, biology and behaviour in all times and places. Myths, music, art, archaeology, language, food, festivals, fun.’

>>> http://popanth.com/

Tuesday 4 December 2012


This is interesting. A crate label from 1940s America reminds us that the notion of 'teenagers' pre-dates the 'youth culture' revolution of the 50s and 60s. I'm guessing that 'Western Vegetables' were those grown in the sunny climes of California and that were new to old school, East Coast cooking. Interesting too that here we have evidence that there were Don Draper pioneers even in the 40s making a connection between adventurous teens and 'new' products - here even striving to make vegetables trendy.

I was born in the USA in 1947 so have no memories of advertising or youth culture in the 40s but my book BOOM! - A Baby Boomer Memoir, 1947-2022 has much to report about the further development of youth culture in the 50s, 60s and 70s. As well as some ruminations on Gen X in the 90s and Gen Y today

News flash >>> The Amazon Kindle version of BOOM! will be free to download on Thursday Dec 6 and Friday Dec 7, 2012

>>>For the free download go to the url below and check that the Kindle price is marked as $0.00


This new Kindle version of BOOM! - as well as the timewarping 1947-2013 Timeline - has 125+ links to the best films, music, TV and documentaries explored in this social history of popular culture + 10 iconic images not available in the print version.

*Don't have a Kindle? Me too. No problemo: get a free Kindle For PC/Mac reader download at Kindle For PC or Kindle For Mac. Works great and as well as books like BOOM! there are lots of free books available at Amazon every day.

More info about BOOM! >

Sex, drugs, Rock ‘n’ Roll 
. . . and vanilla cream pie served by that waitress in The Neptune Diner who lives on in so many Tom Waits songs. 

Straight from the fridge – I Love Lucy meets The Sopranos in The Twilight Zone. 

From Elvis to Johnny Rotten, Neptune, New Jersey (with Greetings from Asbury Park) to Swinging London, Hipsters to . . . today’s, er, Hipsters. 

Some say ‘it all happened in the 60s’ but in
BOOM! anthropologist and social historian Ted Polhemus shows how the roots of our (post) modern age penetrate back to the heady years just after WWII.

If you like Mad Men, Blade Runner, American Graffiti, Blow-up, The Wild One . . . wish you’d caught Monk at Minton’s Playhouse in 1947, Springsteen at The Stone Pony in 1975 or The Pistols in London 1976 (or not) . . .

Includes 
- Sources & Inspiration: Music, Film, TV, Fiction, Non-fiction
- Do the timewarp with the 1947-2012 Timeline
-
Fire up your Kindle: 125+ music/film/TV/doc video links throughout